Krishna.com is a non-profit, and we rely on your donations. If everyone reading this gave $2, we’d be able to continue this mission for another year. Please donate. $21 | $11 | $5 | $2 | Donate a custom amount.

Is srila prahupada authorized?

I have a question. Please forgive me if this is in appropriate but I have a genuine doubt.

Usually the current acharya has to be authorized by the purva acharya (previous acharya) in order to take up the acharya peta.(the position of the next acharya).

What I mean is that the purva acharya has to name the next acharya inorder for him to act as an acharya.

Srila Bhaktisiddahnta Saraswati Thakur did not openly tell that Srila Prabupada will be the next acharya of the sampradaya when he was physically present.

So how did Srila Prabhupad take up this position as acharya? Once again sorry if i have offended some one but I have this doubt in my mind.

I am from south india. I recently heard the story of ramanujacharya. Yamunacharya (ramanujar's spiritual master) was about to give up his body, so he specifically sent one of his disciples to fetch ramanujar to give him the responsibility of spreading the sri vaishnava dharma and establishing him as the next acharya.

Hence I have this doubt? Please clarify this. Sorry if I have offended any one by this.

Surrender all of your doubts to Govinda if they are impeding your service and agitating your mind. Such matters are complicated and dangerous because they may lead to mental speculation, which may lead to offenses. Try not to speculate on who's who. This is Kali-yuga. Many doubts, many misunderstandings. Just trust God.

Understanding the behavior of a sadhu is not a cheap thing. We must think very deeply, be very sincere, try not to make offenses. If we are honest in our desire to understand the behavior of a sadhu, Krsna will help us understand. Trust God and pray not to be cheated.

Prabhupada has spread the name all over the world. Does anything else matter?

Remember, that if we surrender our doubts to the Lord, that if we pray sincerely, we will never get cheated and if we do, then it was for our own sake.

This is my friendly suggestion. By no means I am preaching, because I myself am yet to live up to these words. Just sharing some of my realization. Just suggesting with the hope it might be of use to someone else.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta didn't intend to have one acarya to succeed him. He wanted all of his disciples to create a board (GBC) and run the Gaudiya Math cooperatively. Unfortunately this didn't happen and after some litigations his disciples started their own groups. Most of them follow this system of successor acarya, afaik, but Srila Prabhupada created the GBC as his guru wanted.
Every disciple is authorized to preach on behalf of his guru without being specifically told to do so.